Agenda item

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the proposal to allow Conwy County Council to join the partnership be agreed;

(c)        That update reports be submitted to future meetings of the Committee;

(d)       That further information on the breakdown of calls for children and adults, whether the calls were from hospitals because patients were being discharged and a breakdown of the 299 calls listed as ‘other’ be provided to Members. 

The Director of Community Services introduced a report on the update on the joint Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire Emergency Duty Team based in Wrexham.  He also introduced Mr. Mike Bell who was the Manager of the Emergency Duty Team based in Wrexham. 

The Director explained that the service was well established and stable and would reach its fifth anniversary in June 2013.  He reminded Members that this service was for emergency social work and should not be confused with Galw Gofal.  The aims of the report were to provide an update and to seek the views of Members and make them aware of the proposal to allow Conwy County Council to become a Member of the North East Wales Emergency Duty Team (NEWEDT). 

The Manager advised that the report highlighted the developments made in the NEWEDT and the action points which had been identified as a result of the workshop review.  Further enhancement of information systems had been achieved with the implementation of a new enhanced electronic data set which captured performance activity which in turn would inform future planning and service strategy to better target resource allocation.  Details of the review of 2012-13 service outcomes, performance indicators and performance data were reported along with the key service objectives for 2013-14.  The Manager explained that the performance data for staff attendance was not due to staff sickness (which was only 2% in the service) but to a range of reasons including the example of absence due to staff attending training.  He also explained that not all calls could be answered by the Out of Hours team as they were not able to be in the office all of the time but that when this was not possible, the calls were answered by the call centre who would contact the officers if there was an urgent need.

Councillor H.J. McGuill felt that the report did not include enough information.  She queried the number of social workers in the NEWEDT and whether the appointment of four additional social workers meant that the service had been operating below capacity.  In response, the Manager said that there were ten members of staff in the team and that the four sessional social workers had been appointed to provide cover so were in addition to the team of ten.  Councillor McGuill also requested further information on the breakdown of calls for children and adults, and whether the calls were from hospitals because patients were being discharged and requested a breakdown of the 299 calls listed as ‘other’.  The Manager confirmed that he would provide the information requested.  In response to a comment from Councillor McGuill that she wanted to ensure that the team were not taking on unnecessary referrals from hospitals, the Director of Community Services said that referrals from health would be monitored going forward. 

Councillor S. Jones queried the need to agree a common format referred to in the report as she felt that this should already be in place.  The Director explained that this referred to a common format for reports to Partner Authority Scrutiny Committees and did not refer to the service itself.  Councillor H.G. Roberts queried the number of calls received from the Adult Services under 65 service user group.  In response to a query from Councillor McGuill, the Director provide details of the types of calls received by the team and advised that future update reports could include case studies to provide more detail for Members. 

Councillor D.I. Mackie asked how this Committee could assist if a situation arose where the team was insufficiently staffed even though the Manager was based in, and reported to, Wrexham County Borough Council.  He raised concern that the Committee did not have access to officers as it would if the team were based in Flintshire.  In response, the Director said that any concerns could be raised with him and he would report the comments and concerns to the Governing Board.  He advised that it was a three county partnership but that governance which had been agreed by all of the authorities involved was in place.    

The Chair suggested that further update reports be received by the Committee.           

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the proposal to allow Conwy County Council to join the partnership be agreed;

(c)        That update reports be submitted to future meetings of the Committee;

(d)       That further information on the breakdown of calls for children and adults, whether the calls were from hospitals because patients were being discharged and a breakdown of the 299 calls listed as ‘other’ be provided to Members.